Somorrostro, the neighbourhood that disappeared in Barcelona

Like a ghost that no one remembers, the neighborhood of Somorrostro is stuck in the XXI century as a whisper. Some kind of dinosaur that passed through the Earth, but of which there is no longer even a skeleton or evidence that proves that, in fact, it existed and was alive. Somorrostro is gone. Neither is the factory with which it bordered. Its absence, actually, goes unnoticed. Many do not know that on Somorrostro beach, next to Barceloneta, there used to be a neighbourhood. Even less the millions of tourists who visit this area every year.

Inhuman living conditions

Julia Aceituno arrived in Barcelona in 1952. She and her family were running away from the misery of the reprisals of the Civil War that had loomed large over them in Alcaudete, a town in Jaén. ‘We took the tramway 55, which was uncovered, and walked all over Barcelona, seeing it all so beautiful… But when we arrived at Somorrostro and saw the shack, the picture broke my heart, my mother and my brother’s,’ says Aceituno in the documentary Barraques. La ciutat oblidada. (Shacks, the forgotten city). ‘That was inhuman,’ she adds.

Rambla of Barcelona

The Rambla of Barcelona in the 20th century | Wikimedia

Somorrostro was a neighbourhood of shacks that stretched between the current districts of San Martín and Ciutat Vella between the 19th and 20th centuries, at the very edge of the sea. It bordered with the current Mar Hospital, and with the also disappeared Lebon gas factory in the neighborhood of Pueblo Nuevo.

15,000 people in 2,400 shacks

Although the exact moment of its birth is still unknown, it was in the second half of the XIX century when its existence was made official. Its first settlers came from different parts of the country with the intention of finding better living conditions, as in so many other suburbs of large cities. Also, many of the neighbours who lived there were workers, whose salaries did not allow them to pay rent.

The international expositions of 1888 and 1929 in Spain held in Barcelona, together with the national relocations caused by the post-war period in the 1940s, were high points in the expansion of Somorrostro. Thus, in the 50’s there were up to 2,400 shacks, in which some 15,000 people lived. They were built with stones, sheets, plastics and wood, among other materials.

The home of the flamenco dancer Carmen Amaya

Thus, the neighborhood of Somorrostro was mostly a neighbourhood of workers and among its shacks was also established an important colony of gypsies. In one of the shacks, specifically in number 48, the famous flamenco dancer Carmen Amaya grew up, recognized all over the world, who put Somorrostro on the map.

It was then that the suburb became the setting for the film Los Tarantos, directed by Francisco Rovira-Beleta in 1963 and starring the dancer Carmen Amaya. Somorrostro was also a place mentioned by writers and journalists who chose the neighbourhood as an adventurous destination to spend a few hours. Sometimes poverty was forgotten. However, few Barcelonians dared to venture into a neighbourhood that lived in the shadow of the city.

Los Tarantos

A frame from the film Los Tarantos. In the center, the dancer Carmen Amaya.

A suburb at the mercy of the sea

In the Somorrostro neighbourhood there was no water, electricity or, of course, asphalted streets. Life in those shacks was a constant struggle for survival, subject to weather conditions and the whims of the sea, which from time to time threw down more than one shack. Between 1957 and 1961, the construction of the promenade left the shacks even more exposed to the environmental inclemencies. This is how the shacks were disappearing. It was the beginning of the end of Somorrostro.

‘When the sea was very rough you were shivering and guarding all night, in case they were going to come to the shack…’ says the former tenant of the Somorrostro José Aceituno in the documentary Barraques. La ciutat oblidada. But the sea ended up throwing away his shack, like the ones of so many other inhabitants of the neighbourhood. For José and Julia Aceituno this was the end of their stay in the neighbourhood.

Somorrostro Beach

Somorrostro beach, Barcelona | Shutterstock

Franco’s visit that ended the neighborhood

In 1966 there were still around 600 houses standing, but the celebration of the first Naval Week of the city, which even Franco himself attended, was the final sentence of the Somorrostro. Thus, it was decided to put an end to the shacks that remained with the intention that the dictator would not see all the misery that was growing on that beach. Their inhabitants were relocated, in no less poor conditions, in other shacks such as Camp de la Bota, Sant Roc apartments or in supposedly temporary locations such as the Montjuïc stadium or the Belgium pavilion.

Even so, the Barcelona of misery did not disappear with Somorrostro, because the relocation of the neighbours was not done with solidarity purposes, but for the urbanistic interests that grew exponentially in a city that was growing touristically. The poor position of many people from Barcelona could only be fought from the neighbours opposition in areas such as Badalona, Trinitat or El Carmen.

Recovering the memory

With the celebration of the 1992 Olympic Games everything that could be left of Somorrostro was buried with treachery. Fortunately, thanks to neighbourhood initiatives and those who never forgot, the memory of the Somorrostro neighbourhood was gradually recovered with the help of books or exhibitions.

Thus, in 2011 a stretch of Barceloneta beach was renamed Somorrostro beach, with its corresponding plaque, the one that proves that this suburb existed and was real. ‘All this is nice now. Even tourists come here, but back then nobody wanted to come to Somorrostro beach. It was as if we had the plague,’ says Agustí Mataró in the documentary, also a former neighbour of the suburb.

Somorrostro beach

Somorrostro beach at sunset | Shutterstock

Perhaps, then, the beginning of this article is wrong, because there are traces of Somorrostro. In the stories that were written, in the dances of Carmen Amaya, in the sand of a beach that was stepped on by tens of thousands of workers condemned to poverty and in the name of the beach, which is a tribute to what should never be forgotten.


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